WE’VE TURNED CORNER SHOP
Asghar pledges local solution to making United force again
The Tannadice club has been a recruitment bomb site since their relegation in 2016, with more than 100 deals in and out through three gaffers in three desperate years.
United’s sporting director Tony Asghar insists the methods that made the Terrors are firmly back in place and being built on by manager Robbie Neilson.
That includes a commitment to shop locally for the best talent available on Tayside.
United are preparing for their first full season under the stewardship of American owner Mark Ogren after their play-off shoot-out pain.
Asghar said: “Our Plan A when we arrived in January was promotion, and Plan B is the same – to get promotion. Nothing has changed there.
“Our plan includes introducing youth players to the team. We’ve moved up 13 academy graduates to train with the development squad and first team.
“We want to progress them as quickly as we can and get them into the first team as part of our long-term plan.
“In January, we made sure we had a core of senior players long-term.
“We still want to bring in quality players.
“But the silver lining (of failing to get promotion) is that we can bring younger players into the team in this division, with less pressure than playing against the likes of Rangers and Celtic. “Ten of the 13 we’ve signed up are from the Dundee area. Every club wants that and I think the fans should demand it as well.” It’s a pathway that had dried up as successive managerial regimes tried and failed to find a path back to the top flight at any cost.
A club which had reared Johnny Russell, Ryan Gauld, John Souttar and recruited and developed Stuart Armstrong, Gary MackaySteven and Andy Robertson turned to journeymen to get the job done.
Asghar admitted: “It’s a fine balance. We’ve brought in some experienced Premiership players but our recruitment strategy doesn’t just take in Scotland or the lower leagues in England. We’ve gone abroad too.
“I have good contacts around the world and we’ve managed to get the likes of Ian Harkes from the States and Adrian Sporle from Banfield in Argentina.
“We are not wanting football jobbers. You don’t get any continuity.
“We want sustainability – it’s what Scottish football is always about. We are giving contracts to players who we’ve done proper due diligence on and are certain to do a job for us . They will either be sold or be mentors to the young players.
“We need people who can come in, do well and be sold. We’re a selling club but want to make the team successful and get promoted.
“There’s talent here, no matter how much some people put Scottish football down. We want to give people a platform to kick on.
“Sporle is a great example. He’s played nearly 70 games in the Argentine Premier League, he has a German passport, but he’s just 23.
“We see him improving our team then hopefully, for the club and the boy himself, there will be a transfer fee at the end of it – that’s why we gave him a three-year deal.”
Asghar admits the trials of the past three seasons have created a disconnect at the club – with the fans, the staff, even in the dressing room.
That’s something he is clear he wants to fix.
The former CID and DEA officer turned FIFA agent – who completed the renowned Masters in Sports Directorship at Manchester Metropolitan University – said: “You saw the crowds we had in the play-off games.
“The fans were fantastic and we want to keep that momentum going for them.
“What happened last season happened, but now Robbie has a full pre-season and he has been able to enhance the squad.
“Now we’re trying to create a different culture.
“That’s my job as sporting director – to get this place a bit more buoyant and get the players more together.
“There was a disconnect before and it’s the same with the staff at Tannadice. “Now, people are walking about with a smile on their face. Robbie used the phrase that the club had awoken after the play-offs and it was a great quote because it was true.
“The supporters are buying into it – but it’s all down to results in the end.”